NBA commissioner David Stern, along with his heir apparent, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, addressed the media in his annual pre-Finals press conference, and for the first time in the last few years, there was no talk of head-butting with the union over financial reports, collective-bargaining stalemates or tough revenue-sharing negotiations. But, of course, there were still plenty of issues to be covered.

Chief among them is the possibility of a rule change covering defensive flopping, which seems to be Stern’s new crusade. Stern said that the refurbished competition committee will meet next Monday, and that flopping, as well as additional instances in which replay can be used, will be on the agenda.

“'Flopping’ almost doesn’t do it justice,” Stern said. “Trickery. Deceit. Designed to cause the game to be decided other than on its merits. We’ll be looking at that. We’ll be looking at a number of things that make it easier for us to say to our fans what we all know to be true—our referees want to get everything right. Instant replay, and the elimination of tricks that are designed to fool the ref, or if you don’t fool the ref, to make fans think that the ref made a bad call by not calling it, that shouldn’t have a place in our game.”

Stern folded the flopping issue into a larger topic, taking on the constant scrutiny of league referees and perception among fans that the league directs officials to aid one team or another.

“It’s just the way we are now,” Stern said. “With social media, with the commentary that is going around, with 300 million followers and friends and likes and you name it, there’s always a reason for dialogue, usually occasioned by someone in this room, because otherwise you can’t tweet and say, ‘I’ve got nothing to tweet about.’ … And the surefire things that will get you are flopping, tanking, conspiracy, you know, there’s probably another three or four you can add to the short list.”

Among other topics the commissioner covered:

— The Grizzlies sale. Memphis owner Michael Heisley has been shopping his team for a few years, and finally found a buyer—34-year-old California billionaire Robert Pera, who is expected to pay about $370 million for the team. But Pera still needs to be vetted by the league, and the Grizzlies have already had one potential sale, to a group headed by former NBA player Christian Laettner, fall apart five years ago. Last year, the Hawks were nearly sold to Los Angeles businessman Alex Meruelo, but Meruelo could not meet the league’s financial criteria and the deal fell apart.

“The Grizzlies sale, we received the contract last night,” Stern said. “That's currently being analyzed, and we are going to start both having the lawyers analyze it and go through the standard and somewhat boring process of getting all the facts we need to know for approval by the board of governors. So that's where we are with the Grizzlies.”

— A Kings move. The progress the league had made with the city of Sacramento on a new arena collapsed in March amid an allegation of broken promises from the team’s owners, the Maloofs. Next came speculation that the team could be back on the move, to Anaheim. Stern shot that down, but sounded frustrated when talking about the future of the team.

“If there was a vote (among owners), there would be no support for a move, but I, and I believe the ownership says, they are planning to stay there,” Stern said. “And on other situations I might hazard a guess for a prognostication, on this one, I’m out of the business for now.”

— Under-23 Olympics. Team USA will go for the gold medal in the Olympics this summer, but it could be the last time we see a “Dream Team” of top NBA players—the commissioner has floated the idea of going to the same model followed by the American soccer team, which features players 23 or younger.

“I think we got a lot out of the Olympics,” Stern said. “We helped grow our coverage of our game. We helped grow the game. The result has been extraordinary. … But I think it's appropriate to step back and take stock of where we're going.

"And I do have some great deal of sympathy for those teams whose players grow up in a way that says, I will play under any circumstance for my country, regardless of the injury to me and the threat to my career. And I understand that. And maybe those players are put under enormous pressure to play for their homeland, and perhaps an age limitation would remove some of the pressure from them, while nevertheless giving them an opportunity when they're young to play for their country in the Olympics, to allow them to play for their country in the World Cup like they do in the World Cup of soccer. And so I think there might be a better balance than we currently have.”